Kathmandu: The main climbing season on Mount Everest gets under way this month, but China's Olympic torch relay and bad weather could keep scores of big-spending mountaineers from getting anywhere near the summit.

The upper reaches of the world's highest mountain have been sealed off to private expeditions as China attempts to take the Olympic flame to the summit -- in theory before Saturday.

But poor weather appears to be holding up the torch's ascent, meaning that everyday climbers waiting on the Nepalese side of the mountain could be left perilously short of time for their own journey into the "death zone."

Ang Tsering Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said that if the Chinese torch climb drags on after Saturday, other climbers "will not have enough time to get to the top."

"If you look at the records, expeditions usually summit between the 17th and 25th of May. It's going to be tight," he explained. The spring season offers a brief window for attempts to scale the 8,848-metre peak, as jetstream winds at the summit drop briefly before the summer monsoon rolls in at the end of May.

Climbers usually wait for that window at base camp and make short climbs to acclimatise and pre-position supplies such as tents, oxygen cylinders and gas to melt snow. But for now, they are forbidden from going above 6,500 metres.

China demanded that Nepal impose the restrictions to prevent the kind of protests that have dodged the flame's journey around the globe.
Source : PTI